When commuters
spin the radio dial as they drive through Kansas City, Mo., these days,
between the strains of classic rock and country hits they can tune in to
something unexpected: Russian agitprop.
In
January, Radio Sputnik, a propaganda arm of the Russian government,
started broadcasting on three Kansas City-area radio stations during
prime drive times, even sharing one frequency with a station rooted in
the city’s historic jazz district.
“Who
needs a ridiculous Red Dawn invasion,” a participant in one online
forum wrote about the new broadcasts. “Your overlord, Mr. Putin, will be
addressing you soon, so it’s best to prepare now,” another commenter
wrote, referring to President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia.
In
the United States, talk radio on Sputnik covers the political spectrum
from right to left, but the constant backbeat is that America is damaged
goods.
Sputnik’s American hosts follow a
standard talk radio format, riffing on the day’s headlines and bantering
with guests and callers. They find much to dislike in America, from the
reporting on the coronavirus epidemic to the impeachment of President
Trump, and they play on internal divisions as well.
On
a recent show, one host started by saying he was broadcasting “live
from Washington, D.C., capital of the divided states of America.”
Critics in Kansas City called Radio
Sputnik’s arrival an unabashed exploitation of American values and
openness. Those behind the deal defended it as a matter of free speech,
as well as a simple business transaction.
Peter
Schartel, the owner of Alpine Broadcasting Corporation of Liberty, Mo.,
the company airing Sputnik in Kansas City, said that he started the
broadcasts on Jan. 1 both because he liked what he heard during a trial
run last fall and because he was getting paid.
The deal was brokered by RM Broadcasting, a Florida firm that hunts for
airtime to sell to Rossiya Segodnya, the Russian state media
organization behind Sputnik.
Last
year a federal judge in Florida ruled against RM Broadcasting’s owner,
Arnold Ferolito, after he sued to prevent the Justice Department from
forcing him to register as a https://www.justice.gov/nsd-fara" rel="nofollow - foreign government agent . (Various news media organizations linked to Russia had already been ordered to register.)
The
ruling outraged Mr. Ferolito, who said he made his first deal to get
Russian state radio on the air in the United States in 2009. “They are
paying for airtime and I make a percentage,” he said in an interview. “I
am not being paid to represent the Russian government.”
Anyone
tuned to Sputnik on 104.7 FM while driving across the historic 18th
& Vine district in Kansas City, Mo., will find that it fades for a
few minutes of music from KOJH — the call letters refer to Kansas City’s
oldest jazz house — before Sputnik takes back over.
For
years, Anita J. Dixon, a community organizer, dreamed of creating a
radio station built around the music of such legendary Kansas City
musicians as Count Basie and Charlie Parker. Ms. Dixon said having
Sputnik dominate the same frequency was jarring.
Mr.
Schartel disputed the notion that Kansas City is getting Sputnik
instead of jazz. Radio Sputnik does beam its signal on the same
frequency as KOJH, he said, but outside the limited geographic area
awarded to the Mutual Musicians Foundation for the nonprofit, low-power
jazz station.
Ms.
Dixon still found it galling that Russia had gained space on the radio
dial on the same frequency she had envisioned as a beacon for a black
community that, among other things, had sent soldiers to die defending
American values like free speech.
People
ask how Russia managed to interfere in U.S. elections, Ms. Dixon said.
“Because they get free airwaves,” she said. “It is called propaganda.”
Before
Kansas City, Washington had been the only American city with Sputnik
broadcasts — round the clock on one AM station and one FM station.
Public disclosure forms show that the Russian government is paying more
than $2 million over three years, starting in December 2017, for the
Washington broadcasts.
In Kansas City,
the fee is $324,000 for three years, or $49.27 per hour, according to
RM Broadcasting’s Foreign Agents Registration Act filing. Mr. Schartel
said he gets $27.50 of that hourly rate.
When
it began in January, the Sputnik broadcast on KCXL was met with strong
condemnation from locals. The station received a lot of hate calls,
including a threat to burn it down, Mr. Schartel said.
https://www.kansascity.com/opinion/editorials/article239423958.html" rel="nofollow - An editorial in The Kansas City Star
noted that the free press was a prime target of Mr. Putin’s attempts to
weaken public trust in American institutions. “It’s sad, but not
astonishing, that an American entrepreneur would put business above
patriotism,” the paper wrote. “Listener, beware.”
Those
involved in putting Sputnik on the air defended it as free speech. “I
am not a bumpkin that fell off a wagon; I encourage people to listen for
themselves,” Mr. Schartel said.
What
was once Radio Moscow was reborn as Radio Sputnik in 2014. Mr. Putin
backed the effort to create a central, state-run news organization —
called Rossiya Segodnya, or Russia Today in English — designed to
challenge the West’s global dominance on reporting news.
In a modern spin on propaganda, it focuses on https://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/29/world/europe/russia-sweden-disinformation.html" rel="nofollow - sowing doubt about Western governments and institutions rather than the old Soviet model of selling Russia as paradise lost.
from www.nytimes.com